Cirque du Soleil will be returning to the Royal Albert Hall in January 2004 with DRALION(tm), performing in London for the first time. For more information, visit the following website for details of the all-new European tour:www.cirquedusoleil.com

The billion dollar circus As Cirque du Soleil limbers up for the European premiere of its latest show, Dralion, in London next week, David Lister [The Independent] goes to Las Vegas and Mexico City to meet some of the performers and directors behind this phenomenal French-Canadian success story

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Seventeen years ago, Guy Laliberté, a 25-year-old Canadian fire-eater and stilt-walker, took a small band of street entertainers in a van from Quebec to the Los Angeles festival. It was high risk - the journey as much as the show. Had the fledgling Cirque du Soleil failed at the Los Angeles festival, there would not have been enough money for petrol to get back. Fortunately, the audiences loved it, and one entrepreneur offered Laliberté $1m for the ownership of his outfit. The fire-eater from Quebec refused. He had a passionate belief that his fusion of circus and theatre would not only win over the audiences; it could transform circus forever. No animals, no reliance on family acts, but an emphasis on costume, lighting, music and a storyline. There is no spoken narrative, though. These were to be shows that could be replicated anywhere in the world.

Cirque du Soleil, Royal Albert Hall, London No spit and sawdust here: this is circus as son et lumière By James Rampton The Independent 09 January 2004

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In the olden days when they dreamed of running away to join the circus, little boys and girls envisaged nothing more strenuous than a spot of light plate spinning. Never in their wildest dreams would they have conceived of the dizzying spectacle that is Dralion.

AM I getting spoilt and demanding, or is Cirque du Soleil not quite the imaginative marvel it was seven years ago?

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A bit of both, though probably the former more than the latter. After all, I can’t expect to go on being naively thrilled to find that circus needn’t involve doleful elephants holding each other’s tails, or men waving chairs at drugged tigers, but can integrate bravura acts into a world so gloriously strange it might have come from another planet.

Give 'em enough rope Cirque du Soleil go through the hoops in a bid to bring renewed zest to a much-imitated style. And for the audience, resistance is futile. By Harriet Lane for The Observer

Royal Albert Hall, London SW7, until 13 February Twenty years ago a clutch of hippyish Canadian street entertainers decided, as you do, to form their own circus: only this one wouldn't have any poodles riding bicycles, lion-taming or children on horseback. By banning from the Big Top everything convention expected to find in it, Cirque du Soleil made audiences realise how much they'd been missing.

Cirque du Soleil returns with another mix of technical wizardry and dazzling artistry. Often criticised for its corporate vision of circus, Dralion is essentially what we have come to expect of the French-Canadian company - a flashy set, elaborate costumes, loud music and most of all, stunning acts.

The billion dollar circus As Cirque du Soleil limbers up for the European premiere of its latest show, Dralion, in London next week, David Lister for the Independent goes to Las Vegas and Mexico City to meet some of the performers and directors behind this phenomenal French-Canadian success story.

Seventeen years ago, Guy Laliberté, a 25-year-old Canadian fire-eater and stilt-walker, took a small band of street entertainers in a van from Quebec to the Los Angeles festival.

The gasp-count is high enough in this, the most recent tentacle of the Cirque du Soleil empire to stretch its way across Europe. The acrobats and jugglers, 37 of them Chinese, spin like diabolos, throw themselves through revolving hoops or catapult onto each other’s shoulders with a recklessness that takes the breath away.

Did you see the performance they did on TV over the festive season,gosh it was fantastic.I thought it was going to be boring when i read about it,but i thought i would see what it was like ....i'm i glad i did.The only thing that spoiled it was Dale Winton popping up every so often. I must try and see more of their performances.

Send off the clowns and it would be bliss By Charles Spencer for The Daily Telegraph

Right, that's it. No more pussy-footing. The time has come to take direct action. Every year, when Cirque du Soleil comes to town, I write that most of the show is sensational, but the clowns are the absolute pits. Far from sending them in, the management should send them off, forthwith. But blow me down, every year my polite and entirely reasonable request is ignored.

Sorry it took a bit of time to reply,been a bit busy. Anyway,as i said i thought that this was going to be another"circus" type programme with lots of clowns,but i was very,very much mistaken. This was a programme of various talents from acrobats to unbelievable feats,some of which left you wondering "How did they do that?". The most enjoyable were the 3 Chinese children who had those cone thing doing god knows what on a piece of string,they did a good 10-15 min routine including some gymnastic moves.At the end they got a very warm reception and we were told that they stay at the permanent show in France for a year then return to China and they are replaced by another 3 children. There was this Russian guy who could "fly" on pieces of red cloth suspended from the ceiling,he flew quite a bit over the audience which produced a few gasps!! Two guys at the end ran up and down buildings with the aid of trampolines,gosh the things they could do puts ordinary trampolining to shame.There was a mock building in the centre of 4 very large and long trampolines,they built up the bounce and literaly walked up the walls.A good piece they did was to bounce into the windows with no effort,magical. I wish i could tell you more ,but it would be too long. I do hope they consider putting it onto video or DVD,if it isn't already??

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